88 Proci^edings of Ninth Annual, Mi:s:ting 



Malaria and kindred diseases disappear, and the coast towns 

 that depend on happy and contented summer boarders thrive and 

 smile when they compare present comforts with the days of the 

 past, when mosquito was king. The county commissioners and 

 engineers are proud of their skill and their achievements in dig- 

 ging trenches, ditches, etc. Naturally the keenest kind of compe- 

 tition has sprung up among the various counties of New Jersey, 

 to see which county organization can do the most effective work 

 with the least money. 



A passenger traffic official on the only railroad serving a 

 territory almost as big and with more coast line than New Jersey, 

 quite naturally looks at the mosquito question from a dollar and 

 cents standpoint. 



In New Jersey you have 21 counties, and I understand that 

 more than half are now controlled by a mandatory law. On 

 Long Island, we have only two counties, outside of Greater New 

 York. One of them — Nassau — has been operating under such 

 a law since 1916. The annual tax levy is limited to a maximum 

 of three-eights of a mill on each dollar of assessed valuation. 

 Our other county — Suffolk — is still outside of the up-to-date 

 tnethods employed by Nassau and the dozen or more counties 

 over here in Jersey. The legislators from Suffolk insist on look- 

 ing at such a law as a tax burden, when, as a matter of fact, it 

 is a money raiser for the county. 



The railroad company I represent is the largest taxpayer in 

 the county. We are willing to go along and take our chances, 

 because if the mosquitoes can be exterminated along the water 

 fronts, the increase in summer residents, building of summer 

 homes, etc., will increase the assessed valuation to such an ex- 

 tent as to keep down the taxes to the farmer, the railroad and 

 the local voting population. 



In Nassau County the amount of money spent by the com.- 

 mission in 19 16 was $44,000. In 1921 it was $69,000, and t1ie 

 most wonderful results have been obtained. Nassau County 

 residents are proud of their mosquito commissioners, and if 

 anyone should suggest a repeal of the law, they would surely 

 get into trouble. However, f,o long as the neighboring county is 

 making no efforts to drain the breeding places in that county, 

 Nassau gets swarms of mosquitoes from that quarter and this 

 will continue to be the case until Suffolk County enacts such 

 a law. 



We have every reason to believe that such a law will be en- 

 acted at this present session of the legislature. Our senator 

 and assemblymen are slowh^ being converted. They have been 



